Grandmother Kills Grandson

A Baltimore grandmother has been accused of poisoning her 17-month-old grandson to death with Methadone.

Towanda Reaves, 50, has been charged with murder and child abuse after admitting to police that she rubbed the powerful drug on the gums of two of her grandchildren so they would go to sleep during a July 4 visit. The other grandchild, a girl born three months after the deceased boy, survived the dose.

Normally given to drug addicts to help them overcome their addictions, Methadone can also be used as a painkiller.

Police investigation the toddler’s death initially operated under the assumption it was an accident, according to WJZ, but the guilt-ridden grandmother eventually fessed up.

‘She confirmed that she had given methadone to the children and put it on the gum lines of their mouths,’ Detective Jeremy Silbert, Baltimore City Police, told WJZ.

Reaves told investigators she put her grandchildren to sleep around 8pm on July 4, according to reports. She could still hear them breathing when she woke up around 2am to turn off the air conditoner, one of the toddlers was unresponsive by 4am, causing her to call 911.

Aadyn Overton was pronounced dead at a local hospital less than an hour later, reported ABC 2.

When the same hospital received a visit from a baby girl that tested positive for methadone, the hospital called police, according to ABC 2. She is expected to make be okay, WJZ reported.

Neighbors were shocked to learn the ‘doting’ granny had killed her grandchild.
‘She really took care of them. As far as I can see, she wasn’t a bad person,’ one neighbor told WJZ.

Another neighbor, also a grandmother, was in disbelief.

‘As a grandmother myself, I just can’t imagine it. I just can’t imagine,’ the woman told WJZ.

The deranged granny was arrested August 1 after without incident and faces a second degree murder charge, as well as a litany of child abuse and assault charges, according to reports. Reaves is still in custody.